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Stop Spiritualizing and Start Moving!

Posted on January 5, 2013

turtle on its backDouglas Poole shared an excellent start-your-year-off-right post in his weekly email (not up on his blog yet) . He writes…

So I talked with a guy who felt stuck for most of 2012 and he wants to know the best way to get unstuck so he can move forward in 2013.

My first question was: “Why are you stuck?”. His answer: “I’m waiting on……”.

And I think that is precisely why he is stuck…he is waiting. And that is most likely why some of us are feeling stuck…we are waiting. Waiting for assurances, waiting for motivation or waiting for the right “time”. And if it is not waiting for…then we say we are waiting on someone or we are waiting on God (which in reality is often nothing more than our attempt to spiritualize our being stuck as a God-thing).

That’s not to say that there aren’t occasions when we do have to “wait on God,” but let’s be honest, the vast majority of the time when people say that, they… er, we… know what we need to do. We are just waiting on God to “part the waters” for us instead of wading in.

Are you stuck?  Do you want to get unstuck and move forward in 2013?

Don’t wait for everything to be perfect.  Don’t wait until everyone else is on board.

Just start moving!

What one thing are you going to start taking steps on in 2013?

12 thoughts on “Stop Spiritualizing and Start Moving!”

  1. Kendall Lyons says:
    January 5, 2013 at 12:02 pm

    I did this when it came to my writing and publishing and when it came to my cartooning skills! I’m so thankful that God in fact placed me in situations where I had to answer the call and just, frankly, couldn’t help myself. No more just waiting around unless God says stop at that red light!

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    1. Paul says:
      January 5, 2013 at 4:48 pm

      “Go, until you get a no.” That’s what I say. 🙂

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  2. Karen M. says:
    January 6, 2013 at 2:53 pm

    This seems to be a recurring ‘theme’ to me already in 2013. This is a quote from my pastor’s message today… “Sometimes we can be so ‘spiritual’ we pray for a door to open and then when it’s open we never walk through it! Stop praying for something unless you really EXPECT it to happen!” ~Apostle Ron Carpenter Jr.

    He also talked about how when the bible says to ‘wait’ it doesn’t refer to being lazy, still, etc. It refers to waiting as in battle. Waiting with expectancy, but remaining watchful and ready for action! It was a POWERFUL message today! Thanks for sharing this post.

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    1. Paul says:
      January 6, 2013 at 9:53 pm

      Karen, I love when God seems to be impressing the same message on someone from multiple sources. Thanks for sharing the additional perspective from your pastor’s message today. Reminds me of the way a lion “lies in wait” for its prey. Much different from the way we often “wait.”

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  3. Karen M. says:
    January 6, 2013 at 10:09 pm

    Exactly! He had the musicians play the Mission Impossible theme and did an illustration “creeping” across the stage to show how we should be “waiting.”

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    1. Paul says:
      January 6, 2013 at 10:22 pm

      Awesome!

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  4. Sarah Park says:
    January 7, 2013 at 11:03 am

    Hi,

    Your short post does make sense a lot. This has been my problem to last year. I started online freelancing last year but I placed so many conditions before I actually started working seriously. Now, I regretted I wasted so much time sticking to a lot of conditions.

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    1. Paul says:
      January 7, 2013 at 1:19 pm

      Hi Sarah, I’ve done that a number of times too. Don’t waste more time on regrets. Learn from it and move forward boldly this year!

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  5. Monique says:
    February 4, 2013 at 1:04 pm

    Seriously! This is me to the tee! i am waiting…
    Thanks Paul for posting this, The mantra for 2013, is do it!

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    1. Paul says:
      February 4, 2013 at 5:07 pm

      Awesome Monique! Got something specific you are going to do?

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  6. Monique says:
    February 6, 2013 at 1:15 pm

    I have a few things in mind. Start a social media consulting company and stop waiting for it to happen 😉

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  7. Tad F. Clayton says:
    May 17, 2013 at 5:43 am

    If we let ourselves be condemned for the past, our despair can not only cause us to lose hope, but also cause us to become reduced to self-pity. We can feel sorry for ourselves, believing we have been treated unjustly, perhaps even getting angry at God. The defense is obvious: God is perfectly just for He is by definition just and fair; God is pure; God is total love; God does not make mistakes for He is perfect; so the problem is us, not Him. Now we must bring to mind that He does not keep record of our past wrongs that we have once faced up to, and that He is standing by, waiting to help us to become further sin free, pure, and holy — but we must put aside those doubts and feelings of failure, renew our hope of salvation, trust in his kindness and mercy, depend on his infinite power, and press on to purity, holiness, joy, peace, love, even union with Him in his presence forever. When in sorrow we find ourselves to have dropped our cross and fallen into the dust; we stand up, dust ourselves off, pick up our cross, and press on to the everlasting joy awaiting us at the end of our journey.

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Hey, thanks for reading Live Intentionally. I'm Paul Steinbrueck - husband, father of 3, CEO of OurChurch.Com. I love to learn, I love to take on new challenges, and I love to help other people become more than they ever thought possible. More about Live Intentionally.
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